The invention relates to a lap creel made of rod shaped carrying members, which form, together with ring shaped fixing elements, a circular cage, from which the carrying members project radially outwardly at least over a portion of the fixing elements. One fixing element is arranged at one end of said lap creel, said one fixing element having inwardly opening grooves each of which is located between two carrying members, whereby the free-space inner cross-section of the lap creel bounded by said fixing element is broadened, so that the free-space inner cross-section encompasses the contour of the outer periphery of the opposite end of the lap creel.
Various lap creels made of rod shaped carrying members for taking up of thread type textile goods are already known. The carrying members of these lap creels extend parallel or angularly toward the center line of the lap creel, and they extend radially outwardly into a common cylinder surface or truncated cone surface.
In one known embodiment of a lap creel, wherein the carrying members form parts of a cylinder surface, a fixing element arranged at one end of the lap creel has openings which are essentially adapted to the cross-section of the carrying members. The number and arrangement of the openings corresponds to the number and arrangement of the carrying members, so that the lap creel may be partially inserted coaxially into a lap creel of the same construction. Besides the fixing element provided with the openings, additional fixing elements are distributively arranged across the height of the carrying members. Thus, the lap creels may be inserted one into the other only so far, until ends of the carrying members of one lap creel abut against a fixing element of the other lap creel.
Lap creels of this type of construction not only have the advantage that they require less space for transporting and storage when they are inserted into one another, additionally they also make possible a uniform compression of, for example, wound-on thread like textile material, because the extent to which one lap creel may be inserted into another is definitely limited.
This known embodiment however, has the disadvantage common to all lap creels with a cylindrical winding surface. That is, they are not able to sufficiently fix, especially the first thread courses resting immediately on the lap creel. Consequently, the winding process at the beginning and the unwinding process at the end may be significantly disturbed. However, a lap creel, the carrying members of which forms parts of a common truncated cone surface, is affected by the same disadvantage, because in such a structure the winding courses immediately contacting the carrying surface have the tendency to shift toward the tapered part of the lap creel. The shifting of the winding courses may, though, be avoided by fixing means projecting beyond the carrying members at the ends of the lap creel. However, such fixing means projecting beyond the winding surface prevent the forming of a freely accessible thread reserve, which serves in the further processing of the textile materials, to connect in advance the end of one creel with the beginning of another. There is also no chance, for example, to form a freely accessible thread reserve in the instance of the known cylindrical lap creel described above. This is so, because the fixing element provided with the holes and projecting beyond the carrying members interferes with a thread reserve, and a thread reserve situated at the opposite end could slide off the lap creel unhindered.